In last night's episode, they somehow more or less got it right, except for some howlers.
First of all, Rukmini was abducted right from under the noses of Jarasandha, Sishupala and others. Here, Krishna just takes her hand and strolls to his chariot, like it's a romantic date 😆 They then waste a few minutes on that eyelock - dears, this ain't exactly Geet
If Rukmi was @ the wedding pandal, there is no way he could have caught up w/ Krishna. He was right there when the abduction occured, and like others, chased Krishna. While Balaram blocked the others, he let Rukmi continue.
After that, they run into Sishupala on the way. As mentioned in the previous post, Sishupala never caught up w/ them - he was left behind, and Balarama successfully intercepted them. Nor did Krishna have to fight w/ any of them, thanks to Balaram. Here, they at least salvaged things in the end by having Krishna obey Balarama's order to leave. I hope they show Balaram fighting Sishupal tonight. And Jarasandha's absense was inexplicable, given that in the original story, he was a part of the army that Balaram routed.
They also used the occasion to introduce the relationship b/w Krishna and Sishupala. That's good, but in course of the conversation, Krishna addressed him as 'Bhrata Sishupala'. Uh-oh, one only used the word 'Bhrata' if one was addressing an older brother, so Krishna would have been right in using it w/ Yudhisthir, not Sishupala. Sishupala was much younger than Krishna - when Krishna visited his aunt Shrutashrava, he took the baby Sishupala in his lap, and the latter's extra arms & eye came off. So Sishupala was in no way older than Krishna.
I was excited to see Krishna pull out his bow - when he left, it didn't look like he had any weapons in that chariot. I thought that they overdramatized things by showing him twang his bow, and the sword fall off Sishupala's hand.
Continuing on the costume debacle of this show, they first showed Sishupala on horseback, wearing a 16th century Rajput style armor & helmet - just the type one would see on Rana Kumbha or Rana Pratap. But more serious than this was Sishupala, and later Rukmi, just being on horseback. All kings normally rode either chariots or elephants, and Rukmi chased Krishna on his chariot. I can grant some license for him finding a shortcut and cutting Krishna off at a bend (although Krishna would have known the shortest route since he'd have had to come via that), but having Rukmi & Sishupala travel as cavalry was really poorly planned. There is no way a warrior on horseback could have fought a maharathi (chariot warrior) - in Kurukshetra, Arjun, Bheeshma, Drona, et al always randomly massacred plenty of cavalry. Cavalry was good for fighting foot solders and seizing ground in a battlefield, but not for such long distance duels. Rukmi came ill-prepared here (unlike in the original)
As noted above, I was glad that Krishna used his bow, and I hope he does that tonight. In SK, he did as well, followed by a mace duel, but in BRC's Mahabhashana, he just used his discus. I was hoping they don't make him a one dimensional warrior, but show him in full glory w/ all his weapons.
All in all, I thought last night's episode was mediocre (what's w/ Rukmini's eyelocks?) but okay, given that it could have been a lot worse. The precap shows Rukmini asking Krishna to play his flute - this is a total waste of time, and there are other ways to show their love for each other later. This is a long history, so I really hope they don't drag it, but cover all major events.
Edited by _Vrish_ - 14 years ago
Anupamaa
